People Love Gross Zombies – The Walking Dead Season 3 Premiere Breaks Basic Cable Records

In my recap of the Season 3 premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead, I noted an improvement from last season’s languished happenings. It seems lots of other people were willing to give the show, based on Robert Kirkman’s comic, another chance. While last season’s finale broke records for AMC, the Season 3 premiere broke basic cable records. Hit the jump to find out by how much. 

According to the Hollywood Reporter, “Sunday’s season three premiere collected a whopping 10.9 million total viewers, making it the highest-rated episode in series history, up more than 50 percent from its record-breaking season two premiere. The episode now stands as the biggest telecast for any drama series in basic cable history among total viewers.”

AMC president Charlie Collier gave a statement Monday: “Thank you to the fans for making The Walking Dead such a tremendous success. We are honored and humbled that television’s largest adult audience resides on AMC. So many people on both sides of the camera worked tirelessly on this project, and I thank and congratulate each of them for their amazing contribution.”

The number jumps a bit higher when you factor in all the airings that night – 9 p.m., 10 p.m. and midnight. That brings viewers to 15.2 million total. It’s a big win for the show and the network, especially considering a chunk of their audience was attending New York Comic Con on Sunday. Not sure how much impact that really has but I, for one, was almost too tired to watch Sunday night. But the other thing to remember is DISH Network subscribers weren’t watching either.

THR writes, “The cable network’s online stream of the episode — created specifically for Dish subscribers — crashed due to overwhelming demand. The premiere is now streaming AMCTV.com”

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

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Jill Pantozzi

Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

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